Chris McVeigh writes – If you took a double at the TAB, with the Pope getting married as one leg and Radio New Zealand admitting to a smidgen of left wing partiality as the other, you could be forgiven for thinking that the smart money would be on the Vatican gig bringing home the bacon […]
Media bias in New Zealand yet again
Media bias in New Zealand yet again
08 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle Tags: media bias
The myth of the $140,000 poverty line
08 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality
That is my latest piece for The Free Press, focusing on the claims of Michael W. Green. Excerpt: Most of all, there is a major conceptual error in Green’s focus on high prices. To the extent that prices are high, it is not because our supply chains have been destroyed by earthquakes or nuclear bombs. […]
The myth of the $140,000 poverty line
AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.
08 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Pearl Harbour, World War II
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed, and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. In total, twelve ships were sunk or beached, and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed […]
AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.
Harvey vs Wilson on western culture
07 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment
Simon Wilson, like many on the hard left, sees the West as basically malignant, and that its achievements were based on oppression. This is not an uncommon view from the left. David Harvey does an excellent lengthy response to Wilson’s assertions. Read it all, but here are some key aspects: The article argues that Hammurabi…
Harvey vs Wilson on western culture
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
07 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality
A quarter century ago, economist Price Fishback published “Operations of ‘Unfettered’ Labor Markets: Exit and Voice in American Labor Markets at the Turn of the Century” 1,762 more words
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
Climate Doomsday Prophecy Peddled By Academia Retracted In Disgrace
07 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, climate change, econometerics, economics of climate change, economics of education, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: academic bias, climate activists
A widely-referenced 2024 study that predicted massive global economic damages due to climate change has now been retracted, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Wednesday.
Climate Doomsday Prophecy Peddled By Academia Retracted In Disgrace
Metrics, Markets, and Merger Scrutiny: A Netflix-WBD Combination
06 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - USA Tags: competition law, creative destruction
This morning’s announced merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) would create a global media company of unprecedented scale. The transaction will also almost certainly attract scrutiny from antitrust regulators—most likely the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) Antitrust Division, rather than the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The deal would offer a direct test of the…
Metrics, Markets, and Merger Scrutiny: A Netflix-WBD Combination
Medicaid: What It Has Become
06 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: health insurance
As Craig Garthwaite and Timothy Layton point out: “Originally a small, inexpensive safety-net program, Medicaid has grown into a major national health-insurance provider, covering nearly one in four Americans and more people than the public health insurance programs of the United Kingdom, Germany, or France.” They review the program and offer some recommendations in “Coverage Isn’t…
Medicaid: What It Has Become
Human Capital Hara-Kiri
06 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of immigration, Japan
In Japan, you see native-born East Asians doing menial jobs everywhere you look. You see Japanese janitors, Japanese street-sweepers, Japanese convenience store workers, Japanese crossing guards, Japanese taxi drivers, and Japanese laborers on construction sites. 904 more words
Human Capital Hara-Kiri
Is Competitiveness Transforming Competition Policy?
06 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: competition law, creative destruction
Nations around the world are reassessing antitrust policy (generally called “competition policy” overseas). Governments, regulators, and industry leaders are increasingly asking whether traditional antitrust enforcement is holding back the “competitiveness” of domestic firms. The term now shows up in speeches by European commissioners, in UK government directives, in U.S. merger battles, and in Canadian legislative…
Is Competitiveness Transforming Competition Policy?
Political pressure on the Fed
05 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in business cycles, econometerics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy
From a forthcoming paper by Thomas Drechsel: This paper combines new data and a narrative approach to identify variation in political pressure on the Federal Reserve. From archival records, I build a data set of personal interactions between U.S. Presidents and Fed officials between 1933 and 2016. Since personal interactions do not necessarily reflect political…
Political pressure on the Fed
The Oddly Worded Instruments That Undid a Prince
05 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice Tags: British constitutional law, British politics
In late October, it was announced that the King would formally strip Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal status. At the start of November, the Gazette announced that the King had issued a Warrant directing the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to remove Andrew from the Roll of the Peerage along with Letters […]
The Oddly Worded Instruments That Undid a Prince
The Great Means-Testing Debate
05 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, Milton Friedman, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, unemployment, welfare reform
Nine years ago, I critically analyzed the Cohen-Friedman debate on means-testing Social Security. Only recently, though, did I find the original footage from 1971. As far as I know, this is the first time that any prominent social scientist made the “A program only for the poor will always be a poor program” argument that…
The Great Means-Testing Debate
Labour and Greens want unlimited rates increases
04 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, urban economics
Very pleased to see the Government commit to a law that will tie rates increases to a mixture of inflation and GDP. The era of local government being able to fund every pet project Councillors like is coming to an end. In future they will need to prioritise spending on core infrastructure and facilities. But…
Labour and Greens want unlimited rates increases
The taxing problem of zombie and phoenix companies
04 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, fiscal policy, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Germany
Eric Crampton writes – Damien Grant isn’t normally the one making the case that the government needs to take more in tax. The liquidator and libertarian-minded columnist at the Sunday Star Times more typically wants what libertarians generally want – a government that spends less and that can let each of us keep more of […]
The taxing problem of zombie and phoenix companies
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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